Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Internship at Hyderabad: The Tatkal Hunt

" No need to delay your journey till Friday, you can leave next week as early as possible. "

What can come out of an internship better than this ? That your mentor appreciating your work, you get your certificates well on time, and to top it all, YOU GET TO LEAVE FOR HOME EARLY! Yes , it was a party mood that final day.

*le wild popup window called life appears*

" So how are you planning to leave ? " we were asked. "Umm, tickets are not getting confirmed by any means, that I know. So Tatkal will be it, I guess. " I responded. I had that memory of my first Tatkal experience clean in my head (and cleaner in my blog , the post can be read here ) , what it takes, so it was decided. I was aware of the situation. I was aware that I might need to stay up all night.

*le me at the station*

It was 11pm. I along with two of my pals reached Kacheguda Railway Station. It was deserted. The parked auto-rickshaws were giving us that "Whatcha looking at, Nigga?!" look. Some food stalls were open and people had made a sleeping couch out of the whole platform.

On inquiring we got to know the agenda of the next day Tatkal booking. It was simple. Get enlisted and stay up all night under the stars and perhaps some rain, till the counter opens. "Piece of cake" I thought. Yep, I had stepped on a shitty piece of cow-dung cake.

We decided that we would be sitting near the gates. There was an atm counter adjacent to it. I sat on the steps of the counter, stretched my legs, drained a bottle of Coca Cola down my throat . I was all set to live tweet the event.

This is what I tweeted (forgive me but this is twitter, you reserve the rights to be crappy):

So that was the last one, when my battery died. And that was when I decided to read Tolstoy. Can you imagine? Hahahaha, TOLSTOY AT 2 IN THE MORNING HAHAHAHA.

Naturally, I started feeling groggy in some time. And then, the clock struck 4. I don't know if I really slept it off or I was teleported in future, but the crowd suddenly became active.

Some expected chaos and "kya bhaiya , beech mein nahi ghusne ka bhaiya" moments later , I found myself inside the reservation office, at 7 in the morning. When I had listed my name, I was on the 9th position. But then, observation played a pivotal role and I saw that one of the counter was empty . I pounced on it, like, literally , pounced to form a queue, and was placed on the 3rd spot in the queue. I got a feeling that I might get through this time.

*le another of those 'le' messages appears which you would read and laugh anyways*

The clock struck 7.50 am. People were getting hysterical. Some were hyper-ventilating, while others were busy securing their spots in the queue. "It is time" I figured. And as the ominous red LED clock showed 8 am, I instantaneously turned to a sweat reserve. When my turn came , I thrust my requisition slip in the counter. As luck could have it, only 2 berths were available , and the gulti Uncle sitting inside the counter grinned at me saying "kya bhaiya, masst luck bhaiya" . The war had won, with red eyes and empty stomach as it dawned upon me- YES, I AM GOING HOME!